Are you noticing yourself chatting less often on the phone because you have difficulty hearing? Hearing loss, over time, can cause you to feel isolated. It isn’t necessary to give up chatting on the phone. You can definitely discover methods to keep in touch with your friends and family.
It’s All About Communication
With any relationship, communication is the key and the same goes for your phone. Can anything be done to improve the situation?
- Bluetooth or headphones may be possibilities if you’ve already turned the volume up. It will make your phone sound better and it could be an affordable way to get what you need.
- Do the voices sound too soft? Check the phone to make sure that the volume is all the way up.
- Have you had an ear exam? Not all loss of hearing is permanent, so get a correct diagnosis. Temporary hearing loss can be caused by something as basic as an ear infection or earwax build up.
After you eliminate some of the more obvious issues, you can take a look at other solutions that will get you back on the phone.
There’s an App For That
There are actually quite a few possible apps. There are some pretty cool apps that will get you comfortable being back on your phone.
Some apps turn what the other person says to text you can read. These apps are far from perfect, but you should be able to work with them. Brands to look up include:
- Hamilton Mobile Cap Tel
- Note, Listen for Deaf
- Live Caption
You can’t get all voice to text apps for free but most won’t cost very much.
There is a Phone For That
There are phones that do the same thing as an app for those looking for a landline option. By amplifying the sound an the other end, they make it less difficult to hear. High pitched sounds on the other end become clearer because they can equalize the sound.
Another way to go is a captioning phone. You have to have a special phone that has a screen if you want to use the captioning service. With this service, the words are repeated or typed into software by a third party operator and are then displayed on the screen of the phone. You will need the internet to use a captioning service.
An old school phone system that you can still find which works similarly to a captioning service is Text-to-Voice Teletype (TTY). You will need a TTY device that sits near the phone to show the text, though.
Getting Hearing Aids is Your Best Option
In the past, every time a hearing aid was near a phone, you would get ear piercing feedback, but those days are over. The current technology can work with a hearing aid compatible phone to improve the sound quality and get rid of interference such as background noise. Even when you are not using phone these wireless hearing aids still work.
An advanced program that allows it to be compatible with both smart-phones and landlines is a stand out feature of current hearing aid technology. You hold the phone up to the hearing aid and allow the technology to work its magic by streaming the sound from one device to the other.
Lots of digital hearing aids are also Bluetooth compatible. Pairing your hearing aid up with your smart-phone is done exactly the same way as pairing your phone with any other Bluetooth device. The sound goes directly to your hearing aids when it rings.
Don’t allow hearing loss to wreck your friendships and other relationships. Make up with your phone whatever it takes so you can start talking again. You can check out the newest hearing aid technology by making an appointment with a hearing care specialist.